Sycamore {Ficua sycomorvs) near Ashkelon. (From a photograph by the Editor.)
S^c'lmole Fij; and Leif
In Lower Egypt it buds in March, and ripens early in June, and by the poor of that country as well as of Palestine enormous quantities are consumed. Tiie wood of the tree, though very porous, is exceedingly durable. It suffers neither from moisture nor heat. The I'-gyp- tian mummj' coflins, which are made of it, are still per- fectly sound after an entombment of thousands of j'ears. It was much used for doors and large furniture, such as sofas, tables, and chairs (Wilkinson, .1 nc. Egypt, ii, 1 10). So great was the value of these trees that David ap- ])ointed for them in his kingdom a special overseer, as lie did for the olives (1 Chron. xxvii, 28); and it is mentioned as one of the heaviest of Egypt's calamities that her sycamores were destroyed by hailstones (Psa. Ixxviii, 47). The modern Hai|)ha was the city of syc- amores {Sycom/inon, Keland, Pnlast. p. 1024), and the remains of its grove are still recognisable (Stanley, Sinai and Pal. p. 145). It was into a sycamore in the plain of .Jericho that Zacchaius climbed in order to get a sight of Jesus passing by (Luke xix, 4) ; and at the broken aqueduct of Herod's Jericho Mr. Tristram lately found " a fine old sycamore fig-tree, perhaps a lineal descend- ant, and nearly the last, of that into which Zacchseus climbed" {Lund of Israel, p. 509). That which is call- ed sycamore in North America, the Occidental plane or button-wood tree, has no resemblance whatever to the sycamore of the Bible. The name is also applied to a species of maple (the Acer pseudo-platanus, or false plane), which is much used by turners and millwrights. See Mayer, De Sycamoro (Lips. 1G94) ; Warnekros, IJisi. Nat. Sycomori, in the Repert.fur blhl.Lit. xi, 224 sq. ; xii, 81 sq.; Tristram, Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 397; Thomson, Land and Book, i, 22 sq. See Fig.
Syceas, in Greek mythology, was one of the Titans whom, when Jupiter pursued him, his motlier. Earth, received into her womb.
Sy 'char (Sii^ap i" >(, A, C, D ; but rec. text "^iXnp with B; Vulg. Sichar ; but Codd. Am. and Fidd. Sychar ; Syriac Socar), a place named only in John iv, 5, as " a city of Sama- ria called Sj'char, near the ground which Ja- cob gave to Joseph his son ; and there was the' ■well of Jacob." Sychar was either a name ap- plied to the town of Shechem, or it was an in- dependent place.
1. The first of these alternatives is now al- most universally accejjted. In the words of Dr. Robinson {Bibl. lies, ii, 290), "In conse- quence of the hatred which existed between the Jews and the Samaritans, and in allusion to their idolatry, the town of Sichem received, among the Jewish common people, the b}'- name Sychar." It seems to have been a sort
SYCHAR
63
SYENE
of nickname (perhaps from "iJl^liJ, skeker, "falsehood," spoken of idols in Uab. ii, 18; or from "!13t3, s/iikkur, "drunkard," in alUision to Isa. xxviii, 1,7), such as the Jews were fond of imposing upon places they disliked; and nothing could exceetl the enmity which existed be- tween them and the Samaritans, who possessed Shechem (John iv, 9). It should not be overlooked that John ap- pears always to use the exjjression Xeydjufi'ot,', "called," to denote a sobriquet or title borne by place or person in addition to the name, or to attach it to a place remote and little known. Instances of the former practice are xi, 16; XX, 24; xix, 13, 17; of the latter, xi, 54. The son of Sirach speaks of " the foolish people that dwell in Sikima" (1,28). See Lightfoot, Opera, ii, 586 ; Lange, Life of' Christ, ii, 337; Hengstenberg, On St. John if, 5. Jerome, in speaking of Paula's journey, says, " She pass- ed Sichem, not, as many erroneously call it, Sichar, which is now Neapolis" (L'pist. ad Eiistoch. in 0pp. i, 888, ed. Migne). In his questions on Genesis he says that, according to Greek and Latin custom, the Heb. Sichem is written Sicima ; but that the reading Sichar is an error: he adds that it was then called Neapolis (0pp. ii, 1004, ed. Migne). So Adamnan writes to Ar- cnlf, who travelled in the 7th century : " He visited the town called in Hebrew Sichetn, but by the Greeks and Latins Sicirna, and now more usually Sijchu}'" {Early Travels, Bohn, p. 8). In the 12th century Phocas says, " Sichar was the metropolis of the Samaritans, and was afterwards called Neapolis" (Reland, I'alcest. p. 1009).
On the contrary, Eusebius {Onomast. s. v. 'S.vxup and Aovta) says that Sj'char was in front of the city of Neapolis; and, again, that it lay by the side of Lnza, which was three miles from Neapolis. Sychem, on the other hand, he places in the suburbs of Neapolis by the tomb of Joseph. The Bordeaux Pilgrim (A.D. 333) describes Sechim as at the foot of the mountain, and as containing Joseph's monument and plot of ground (villa). He then proceeds to say that a thousand paces thence was the place called Sechar. Moreover, had such a nickname been applied to Shechem so habitually as its occurrence in John would seem to imply, there would be some trace of it in those passages of the Talmud which refer to the Samaritans, and in which every term of op- probrium and ridicule that can be quoted or invented is heai>cd on them. It may be afhrmed. however, with certainty that neither in Targum nor Talmud is there any mention of such a thing. Lightfoot did not know of it. The numerous treatises on the Samaritans are silent about it, and recent close search has failed to dis- cover it. See Shechem.